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‘Rush Hour’ TV Show Casts Jon Foo In Jackie Chan Role

If you didn’t know, there’s going to be a Rush Hour TV show, based on the 1998 action comedy starring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker. The movie grossed over $800 million dollars worldwide, spawning two sequels, Rush Hour 2 (2001) and Rush Hour 3 (2007). I’m surprised they didn’t do a TV show sooner.

According to Deadline, the CBS pilot has cast Jon Foo in one of the lead roles. He’ll be playing Detective Lee, the character that Jackie Chan played in the movie. Chris Tucker’s role, Detective Carter, has yet to be cast.

The series is going to be written and executive produced by Bill Lawrence (Ground Floor, Scrubs) and Blake McCormick. Jon Turteltaub (Harper’s Island, Jericho) will direct the pilot.

CBS’ Rush Hour pilot centers on Lee (Foo), a stoic, by-the-book Hong Kong police officer assigned to a case in Los Angeles, where he’s forced to work with a cocky black LAPD officer, Carter (originally played by Chris Tucker), who has no interest in a partner. A top detective with the Hong Kong police department, Detective Lee is a dedicated professional and master martial artist, a man of few words who knows how to get the job done.

A British actor of Chinese and Irish descent, Foo is also a trained martial artist and is best known for starring in Tekken, a live-action adaptation of the Japanese fighting game.

Despite a harrowing report from a WGA study that found that “the number of jobs for women, minority and older TV writers took a nose dive” in 2014, Asian actors are slowly making strides in television in leading roles. ABC’s Fresh Off The Boat boasts an all-Asian cast and centers on an Asian-American family living in Orlando, Florida in the ’90s. Netflix’s Marco Polo, which has a predominately Asian cast, was renewed for a second season. AMC has a martial arts series called Badlands in the works starring Daniel Wu, a Hong Kong American actor.

Of course, television still has a long way to go toward inclusivity. The success of shows like Empire will hopefully push network executives in the right direction.